UPDATE: On Thursday, April 9, 2020, Governor Wolf announced that Pennsylvania schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 academic year. All facilities are closed until further notice. All events are cancelled or postponed until further notice.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We hope this email finds you well and that all of our families remain safe and healthy. Our staff has been working tirelessly to continue cleaning all buildings and preparing enrichment materials for our students. While we are prepared to digitally instruct, we are awaiting guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to ensure that instruction is delivered in an equitable manner, as required by law. In the meantime, we are providing supplemental work this week in order to help enrich our students and maintain their skills.

School Closure and Education

Currently in Pennsylvania, the Districts have been tasked locally with making decisions on when to digitally instruct; however, we must be cautious as to when we initiate this process. The PDE has yet to specify whether or not these missed days will be completely forgiven or if we will have to continue educating into the summer.

While the PDE has stated that school districts will not be penalized if they fail to meet the 180-day school year minimum, this is currently only the case if they cannot make up the missed days by June 30, 2020. We will do our best to continue making our school year schedule flexible so that we can meet the requirements of the State without extending the school year far into the summer.

Online Instruction

Because there is no clarification on whether digital instruction during the closure will count toward missed days, all assignments will be considered optional at this time. However, teachers have thoughtfully prepared assignments they thought would be beneficial in maintaining student skills. We will communicate with our families when we anticipate moving to online instruction of new materials in order to continue our students’ educational progression. If permitted by PDE to instruct digitally, we will do so throughout the previously scheduled breaks (i.e. Spring Break) and continue until the requirements are met.

Pennsylvania Standardized Testing

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education is currently considering one-year waivers for Keystone and PSSA exams in light of the extenuating circumstances regarding COVID-19 closures. We will contact our families with more definitive answers as they become available.

Additional Resources

These are unprecedented times we are currently facing, and we know that pandemic fears can be difficult for students to process. As we face this reality, we want to provide you with resources to speak with your children about COVID-19.

We appreciate your cooperation and patience as we work through this difficult, unprecedented situation together.

Sincerely,

Barry Balaski

Acting Superintendent

Moon Area School District

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Thank you,

J. H. Brooks Elementary

1720 Hassam Road, Moon Township, PA 15108

Equal Opportunity and Title IX Statement

Moon Area School District (MASD) does not discriminate in its educational programs, activities or employment practices based on race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, ancestry, genetic information or any other legally-protected category. Announcement of this policy is in accordance with State Law including the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and with Federal law, including Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.